Deuteronomy 12:5 "But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come."
Do you believe God is specific in His ways? Do you believe God is the God of
order? Is there a proper manner in which we are to worship the Lord? Is
there a proper place where we are to worship? I hope to share my thoughts with
you concerning these questions.
First, I do believe God is very specific in His ways. I do believe He is
the God of order. You do not have to look farther than the first chapter of
Genesis to see He is orderly in all His ways. Let me sidetrack for just a
moment in order to express what I see in these questions. The very first verse
of the Bible tells us very specifically, "In the beginning, God..."
For there to be order in the activities we call nature, for there to be
order in our individual lives (and all that encompasses), for there to be order
in the universe, we must place God "In the beginning." There is
no other way for life, itself, to make any sense without God in the beginning.
I refuse to believe this universe, and all life, is the result of some chaotic
accident where two masses collided. That makes no sense whatsoever. It is
no accident that the smallest atom is built on the same order as the solar
system: a nucleus with protons, neutrons, and electrons rotating around it in
the same manner as the planets rotate around the sun. Only God could create
such a masterpiece.
So, God working in such an orderly fashion requires some semblance of order in
our approach unto Him. Even in our darkest times of need, there is a
necessity of order in our worship. That order of worship must hold the same
truth as creation, "In the beginning, God..." We must seek Him
with all our hearts and minds. That is why previously to this, God had
commanded them to rid the land of all the idols. We must rid our minds of
all the earthly idols to which we tend to lean and place our confidence.
We understand God is to be the sole object of our praise and worship. Today's
passage tells us we are to "seek... His habitation." So let us
briefly look for the location of His habitation. In Deuteronomy 26:15, we
read that the holy habitation of God is in heaven. But in the fullness of time,
we read that God became man through His Son, Jesus Christ. "Behold,
a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." (Matthew
1:23) Now, by the grace of God, we have access through Christ unto the
Father. But again, the question is where is the proper place to worship
Him? Where is His habitation? Is it only in heaven? The Apostle Paul
tells us in Ephesians 2:22 that we "are builded together for an habitation
of God through the Spirit."
"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6) We are an habitation of God
through the Spirit of God because Christ is alive in our hearts and
minds. There can be no doubt that in the child of God, Christ (God with
us) dwells in our hearts. So how are we to seek Him? Is it only
through the working of the mind? Can we through academic study achieve
the habitation of God? Hopefully, this writing mentally instructs us as
to the place where we are to worship, but we cannot achieve it merely through
the exercise of the mind. The Psalmist tells us in Psalm 22:3, "But
thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." We can
achieve arrival unto the habitation of God through our heartfelt praises unto
Him.
Jesus tells us the Father seeks such as those who worship Him in Spirit and in
truth. We can only enter His presence by faith lifting our praises and
giving honor unto Him. It is true that we can worship Him wherever we may
be, but the greatest expression of worship comes when we are assembled
(habitating) with those of life faith who are engaged in the same faith filled
activity of worship and praise unto the Lord. Darkness must flee when we begin
to praise our Lord for His marvelous grace and mercy in our lives. When we
place God "in the beginning" before our storms, trials, struggles,
and decisions of life, we enter into His habitation. This is the proper order
of God.